Tips for shooting lightning?

Joined: 25 Jun 2006 Posts: 40 Location: Manitoba, Canada

Over the years I have tried with varying degree of success to shoot natures greatest light show. Now that I have switched from film to digital I want to know if anyone has some sure fire suggestions to go with it.
I know the basics (tripod, remote, keep NR turned off, shoot in RAW, don't get killed, etc.) As well I have a good handle on composition.
Let me know of your successes and technique.
Thanks

Joined: 10 Apr 2004 Posts: 65 Location: Norman, OK

I used to shoot with NR on. It really cut down on PP time, but it seems like the lightning would ALWAYS come while my camera was processing.

One mistake I used to make was that I would use a much too small aperature. You need to have the camera relatively wide open f 5-6 or so, so that your camera will be able to pick up all the details of the lightning.

I've also found that it is really useful to scope out a few good places to go shoot when the lightning comes where you know you'll have a good composition. Around I have three good spots--one to the east, one to the west, and one to the south where I've found a decent composition (tree, old building, etc) that I would love to have a shot that included lightning.

Good luck!

Joined: 11 Oct 2005 Posts: 176 Location: philly

i sure you know this but i just found out yesterday and i never even thought about it. use bulb

Joined: 15 Feb 2006 Posts: 197 Location: Rock Springs Wy.

Ok, Dumb Question...... What is NR???

Posted: Fri Oct 06, 2006 7:18 pm

it stands for Noise Reduction.

basically the camera takes the shot as normal, then records a second frame without opening the shutter. This second frame is used as a baseline since anything which shows up on it MUST be noise. This helps the camera to remove noise from the actual picture.

The disadvantage of this is that however long the main exposure is, thats how long the NR exposure will be too. So if you take a 10 second exposure with NR on, it takes the camera ~ 10 seconds to process the frame. Thats 10 seconds when all sorts of interesting things will happen because you can't take a picture.

Joined: 14 Feb 2006 Posts: 19 Location: Mesquite, TX

This little doo dad is on my wish list before next summer's storms start here in Texas and it may help with your problem. Not cheap but came highly recommended from another photo board and should solve the "when to press the shutter" issue...
http://lightningtrigger.com/